


trembling and cold

by mothicalcreatures



Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:48:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28334127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mothicalcreatures/pseuds/mothicalcreatures
Summary: “Just hold my hand, please.”That had been what John had asked of Tom when Tom had found John so distraught he could hardly move after they’d made their way back toTerrorfollowing the horrors of Carinvale.
Relationships: Thomas Hartnell/John Irving
Comments: 23
Kudos: 21
Collections: The Terror Bingo (2020)





	trembling and cold

**Author's Note:**

> This hit me at 1am while I was writing another fic. Writing for the Terror Bingo prompt "autopsy" and the tumblr prompt "Just hold my hand, please."

“Just hold my hand, please.”

That had been what John had asked of Tom when Tom had found John so distraught he could hardly move after they’d made their way back to _Terror_ following the horrors of Carinvale. His hands had been trembling and cold, his gloves having been lost to the blaze. Tom had taken John’s hands between his own and held them until the iciness had bled away and they'd stopped shaking.

It had become an unspoken intimacy between them after that. Whenever John had been able, after coming in from a watch or meeting on _Erebus_ , he had sought out Tom, and Tom had held his hands, rubbing his palms and fingers to get the blood moving. Even once they’d begun their walk out, John had taken any excuse to be close to Tom and to hold his hands, and Tom had even offered his assistance to Goodsir to enable that. Tom had been glad to be of service to the men, as deprived of doctors as they were, but it had been his selfish desire to hold his lieutenant’s hands that had driven him more than anything.

Now John’s hands were the coldest they had ever been and no amount of holding would bring warmth back to them. That didn’t stop Tom though, as he and Bridgens began the sorry work of dressing John to be buried.

His own hands shook has he drew John’s shirt over his mangled chest, made all the uglier by the new made autopsy incisions. Tom had been distraught when Goodsir had done the same to his brother John, but he couldn’t find the same anger that it had been done to his lieutenant John. This autopsy had allowed Hickey to be caught in his lie and hung.

When Bridgens brought over the swath of canvas they were to wrap John in, Tom gave John’s hand one final useless squeeze, before stepping back and letting John be covered entire.


End file.
